Tag Archives: Mike Pence

national news, political news

Pence has grown a pair?

What do you know about this? It appears that former Vice President Mike Pence has grown a pair of … um … well, you know what I mean.

Pence has told a group of Republicans that there is “no room” in the party for those who apologize for Vladimir Putin. Gosh! About whom do you suppose Pence is referring?

According to Newsnation: “Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom? There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin,” Pence said, according to excerpts from the speech, which was closed to reporters. “There is only room for champions of freedom.”

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/pence-hits-trump-no-room-in-gop-for-apologists-for-putin/?utm_campaign=NewsNation-trending-now&utm_source=thehill.com&utm_medium=newsnation-cross-brand

The word is out that he is stretching the divide that is growing between Pence and the guy who selected him to be vice president for four years prior to losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

It’s time to move past the 2020 election, Pence said. It’s time for the party to start plotting a course for the future, he said.

It took Pence a long time to become his own man. Too long, if you ask me. Even when the ex-POTUS threatened Pence because he did his job on 1/6 and certified President Biden’s election, he remained silent.

That now appears to be changing.

It’s not that Pence is going to get my vote if he decides to run for POTUS in 2024. However, I want to take this moment to offer him a word of support simply for demonstrating a smidgen of courage.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

You go, Marc Short!

Former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff has found his voice along with his former boss in the wake of Donald Trump’s Big Lie and his insistence that Pence could summarily overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Short told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that “snake oil salesmen” filled Trump’s vacuous skull with notions that Pence had more authority than the Constitution allowed. That he could have overturned the results of several Joe Biden-won states into votes for Trump.

Uhh, No. He couldn’t do that. To his credit, the former VP didn’t do it. He stood on the rule of law, even though the POTUS pressured him to act way beyond his constitutional authority.

Pence has said that “Trump is wrong” to have made that demand. Now we hear from Pence’s No. 1 guy in the administration, his chief of staff.

What’s more, Short told Todd that President Biden was “duly elected president of the United States” in 2020. Well, it took him a while to come around. He did and for that I am grateful.

Short has now joined a sort of hall of honor in becoming a new target for Donald Trump’s brain-dead epithets.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news, political news

If only Trump knew …

I have sought to inform readers of this blog about the myriad reasons Donald Trump was so profoundly unfit to serve as president of the United States.

One of those reasons has been laid bare in recent weeks. It has been his total ignorance of the power of the presidency and vice presidency and the limitations placed on both offices by the Constitution of the United States, the document Trump and Vice President Mike Pence swore to uphold and defend.

Trump’s urging of Pence to “overturn” the results of the 2020 election on 1/6 illustrates so graphically the ignorance of Trump about the government he was elected in 2016 to lead.

Had he any notion of the limits of presidential power, or any understanding of what the Constitution allowed, he might not have demanded that Pence do what the VP knew in real time he could not do. Pence knew he could not overturn any state’s duly certified election returns. Pence knew the limits of his role on that horrible day, which was to preside over Congress’s task of certifying the results of a free, fair, legal and secure election.

I don’t want to say, “I told you so,” but Trump’s abject ignorance of government, mixed with his delusions of grandeur, have produced a case study in how unfit this guy was to have occupied the most powerful office in the land … and arguably the most exalted office on Earth.

Y’all saw it right here.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Donald Trump

Ex-POTUS shows his profound stupidity

(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Donald J. Trump’s ability to demonstrate his abject stupidity has become the stuff of political legend, or at least the stuff of tittering and gossip.

Mike Pence, who served as vice president in the Trump administration, has said the former Insurrectionist in Chief was “wrong” to suggest that the VP had the authority to “overturn” a duly constituted election. What was Trump’s response? He decided to hurl epithets not only at Trump, but also at “Old Crow Mitch McConnell,” whatever the hell that means.

You see, all Pence did in his talk to the Federalist Society the other day was to declare that the law is clear, that the vice president had zero authority to do what Trump demanded of him, which was to reject electoral votes cast for Joe Biden and award them to Trump.

Pence said he couldn’t do that. So … Donald, for cryin’ out loud, you need to stop fomenting The Big Lie about phony vote fraud. I know he won’t stop. He likely will go to his grave bellowing nonsensical trash about “corrupt” electoral processes and “rigged elections.”

Donald Trump will check out more than likely on the wave of stupidity on which he rode to public office in the first place.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot, national news

What? Pence tells truth? Oh, my!

What in the world has happened to former Vice President Mike Pence? The man who survived four years as VP in an administration led by a carnival barker masquerading as president suddenly has found a voice to tell the world the truth about the one-time Liar in Chief.

Which is, contrary to what Donald J. Trump keeps insisting while spouting The Big Lie, that Pence had no authority to “overturn” the results of the 2020 presidential election. The former president, Pence said, “is wrong” to suggest that Pence could take that action.

Pence made the remarks this week in defense of his own actions on 1/6 but also to portray Donald Trump’s demand that he act outside the law as “un-American.” Indeed, Pence said there is nothing more un-American than to have a single individual overturn the will of the voters, who in November 2020 made their choice clear in selecting Joe Biden and Kamala Harris over Trump and Pence.

Only the voters have the right to decide who wins elections, Pence said.

To be clear, my instinct to offer unconditional praise for the former VP is tempered by the knowledge that he served with craven fealty to Donald Trump. Even immediately after the mob of traitors stormed the Capitol on 1/6, Pence remained silent about what the POTUS failed to do in real time. He failed to put a halt to the violence that was erupting inside the nation’s Capitol Building. He failed to summon the National Guard to restore order. Trump failed condemn forcefully the actions of the mob that was reacting to the then-president’s own exhortation to “take back” our government.

Let’s remember, too, that rioters were shouting “Hang Mike Pence!” who at that moment was presiding over a joint congressional session to receive and certify the electoral votes that carried Joe Biden to the presidency.

Pence’s sudden conversion to sanity and reason isn’t likely to endear him to the Trump “base” that continues to adhere to The Big Lie about phony vote fraud. Indeed, Pence is considered a possible candidate for president in 2024 and a potential rival to Trump if the ex-POTUS decides to run again (which I continue to doubt will occur).

The very best thing I can say about Pence’s declaration — and I know this is cliche — is that it’s better late than never.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Pence starts GOP chatter

Former Vice President Mike Pence has the Republican Party faithful chattering about whether he plans to run for president in 2024.

Oh, my. Let ’em talk among themselves.

Pence visited New Hampshire recently to shake a few hands and talk to the locals about, oh, possibly a Pence candidacy for POTUS. He says he is focused only on helping GOP candidates running for Congress in 2022. Sure thing, Mr. VPOTUS. I believe that … not!

As The Hill notes, though, a Pence presidential candidacy is going to pi** off the GOP cultists who are angry over the way he conducted himself on 1/6. What did he do to anger the Donald Trump cult cabal? Oh, all he did was follow the law, the Constitution and the oath he took to obey both by refusing to block the certification of the 2020 election result that gave us President Biden and got rid of Donald Trump.

Pence fuels speculation of 2024 presidential bid | TheHill

Thousands of rioters stormed the Capitol on 1/6, some of them yelling “Hang Mike Pence!” I guess the thought is that many of still want the former VP to hang from the gallows.

Absolutely disgusting.

A Pence candidacy surely will lend plenty of drama to a GOP primary campaign that might also include the 45th POTUS.

Sheesh!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

An insurrection? Um … yep

A critic of this blog, a gentleman with whom I have a casual acquaintance, posited an interesting notion that I believe needs a response.

He wrote: An insurrection is an attempt to overtake a government. How are you going to overtake a government without weapons?

He refers to the riot that erupted 1/6 on Capitol Hill. I have called the riot an “insurrection.” So have others. Those on the far right have declined to use that term. That is their call. I’ll stick with my description of what happened.

My critic wonders how one can have an “overtake a government without weapons.”

Actually you can. Indeed, from what I witnessed on 1/6, the mob that stormed into the Capitol Building had plenty of “weapons,” which they used with brutal efficiency as they stormed into the halls of our federal government. Did you see ’em beat the cops with flag poles, blasting them with chemical spray, throwing fire extinguishers … that kind of thing? Oh, and what about the zip ties recovered from many of the suspects arrested on that day?

What would have occurred had they been able to storm into the rooms where members of Congress were accepting the Electoral College ballots that declared Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 election? The terrorists, as near as I could tell, weren’t joking when they hollered “Hang Mike Pence!” while looking for the vice president of the United States, who was presiding over this governmental ritual.

Could this mob of terrorists stopped the process of certifying the result? Absolutely!

The best news of all is that they were prevented from getting their grimy mitts on more victims by quick-thinking Capitol Police officers.

My blog critic referred to the “so-called insurrection.” There was nothing “so-called” about we witnessed that day.

The U..S. House of Representatives select committee that is ramping up its probe of that horrific event vows to get to the truth. May the panel find all of it.

One more point: I checked my American Heritage Dictionary and looked up “insurrection.” It describes the word as “an act of open revolt against civil authority or a constituted government.”

Yep. That’s what we witnessed on 1/6.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, national news

Anger just won’t go away

The anger I feel toward the (thankfully) single-term presidency of the 45th POTUS just won’t dissipate.

Critics of this blog say I harbor “hatred” toward that individual. I don’t think that’s the case. I have worked my entire life — at least for as long as I have been old enough to care about such matters — to avoid hating anyone.

But my goodness. Why do I harbor this notion when I see a “Trump-Pence 2020” sign in front of a business or a flag flying from its roof with a similar message that I do not want to enter that place to do any business with them?

We traveled recently to Washington County, Texas, which I am going to presume is the heart of many of folks’ political universe. We have seen Trump-Pence signs on lawns throughout Brenham, the county seat. Washington County voters cast 74% percent of their ballots for POTUS 45 in the 2020 election. Some Texas counties logged greater percentages for him last time out. Still, three out of four ballots going to this guy? Wow!

I don’t think much about signs in front of people’s homes. They’re entitled to their views, just as I am entitled to mine.

The business owners, though, who boast about supporting an amoral, sociopathic, twice-impeached liar just continues to boggle my noggin.

I don’t get it. I cannot darken their door. I will elsewhere to do business.

All I need is a business owner to refrain from declaring publicly his or her support of an individual who very well could end up being indicted for felony criminal activity.

Meanwhile, I might need therapy to get over this first-time-ever feeling toward a cheap politician.

Pray for me. Please?

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Ex-VP Quayle: new hero

It’s time for me to admit something.

I was willing to give former Vice President Mike Pence the benefit of ample doubt over his role in the 1/6 insurrection launched on Capitol Hill by the riotous mob of domestic terrorists.

They stormed the Capitol Building, some of whom were yelling “Hang Mike Pence!” Why did they want to string him up? Because he was doing his constitutional duty by presiding over the certification of the Electoral College totals from the 2020 presidential election.

He resisted POTUS 45’s demand for him to “overturn” the results. Good for the veep, I thought, and said so out loud.

Now comes this bit of news from a book just released by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, authors of “Peril”: Pence had to be persuaded that there was nothing he could do to overturn the results.

The persuader? His pal and fellow Indiana resident former VP Dan Quayle, the guy who once was a laughingstock because he once misspelled “potato” in front of elementary school students.

Quayle told his VPOTUS successor that there was nothing he could. Pence reportedly asked for guidance, sought a clue as to how he could rig the election result to produce a victory for himself and the guy who was running for re-election as POTUS.

Dan Quayle has emerged as the unsung hero of that hideous insurrection.

Quayle had danced to that tune already, in January 1993, as he presided over an Electoral College certification after he and President George H.W. Bush lost their re-election bid in a fight against Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

That GOP team, though, did it right. President Bush and Vice President Quayle both accepted their defeat. They presided over a seamless transition and then faded away, stepping out of the limelight.

If only POTUS 45 would learn … if only.

As for Mike Pence, Woodward and Costa have revealed him to be what many of us knew all along: He was the No. 1 sycophant to a twice-impeached POTUS.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

DC riot

Ex-VPOTUS takes pride in his Jan. 6 role

(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Mike Pence said he is proud of the role he played during the Jan. 6 insurrection against the federal government.

Good. But should he shower himself with too much high praise? The former vice president of the United States should ponder the obvious. Mike Pence did what the law and the U.S. Constitution required him to do.

The former VP spoke Thursday at the Ronald Reagan library and spoke of the riot that erupted when the former Imbecile in Chief incited the angry mob to march on Capitol Hill. Matters got grievously out of hand, as you’ll recall.

“Now there are those in our party who believe that in my position as presiding officer over the joint session that I possess the authority to reject or return electoral votes certified by the states,” Pence said. “The Constitution provides the vice president with no such authority before the joint session of Congress.”

Pence said he’s ‘proud’ of role he played on Jan. 6 | TheHill

Pence was presiding over a joint congressional session to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he and his running mate lost.

Don’t get me wrong. I am glad Pence followed the law. I am glad he wasn’t harmed by the terrorists who stormed the Capitol Building shouting “Hang Mike Pence!”

The former VP did the only thing he could do under the law, which was to preside over the counting of Electoral College votes.

Is that worthy of pride and high praise? Sure … but only if you believe Mike Pence had any options other than the one he was required to follow.